Products sold at Costco stores are high-quality, name-brand items, according to U.S. News & World Report. While shoppers typically visit Costco for grocery items, members also take advantage of access to name-brand clothing, books, cookware and household items sold at deeply discounted rates.

Using the warehouse business model, Costco buys high-end items in bulk, enabling the company to sell goods to its members at a fraction of the retail price. Costco bases its shopping experience on volume, for example, selling two sealed boxes of Oreos directly as they arrived from the manufacturer instead of unloading the boxes and selling them individually.

Costco also markets its own brand of merchandise under the name of Kirkland. Items under this brand name include a range of merchandise from bags of almonds to bread and shampoo sets.

Costco offers three kinds of memberships: Gold Star, Business and Executive. Each level of membership offers percentages back on items purchased in a year along with specialty membership services.